Denis ZezIukin
As a child, I had a particular affection for railroads. I dream that I will become a train operator when I grow up. My family lived in a small town far north of Western Siberia. Our area had no trains, and I wanted the railway to appear one day. Once, one of the adults told me about the abandoned rail tracks and wooden barracks found in the forest outside the city limits. I learned the history of their origin much later. From 1947 to 1953, one of Stalin's large-scale Construction Projects took place in the post-war USSR. Prisoners of the Gulag and civilians were building the railway track of Chum-Salekhard-Igarka in difficult northern conditions. The road from river Ob to Yenisei was supposed to stretch along the latitude of the Arctic Circle for 1,480 kilometres and connect the mainland with the construction site of a new seaport. In the sixth year of construction, when almost half of the track was already functioning, Stalin died. Soon after the death of its main ideologist, the track itself fell asleep forever. The project was recognized as inexpedient and mothballed.
I think about unfulfilled dreams and unresolved traumas of the Soviet past. Power in the USSR rested on the myth of a bright future; the road extended through many people's fate and turned into a disaster. More than half a century later, the repressive policy of the state and terror against its citizens have not received a proper legal assessment. Society has not fully assimilated the dark lessons of history, and their ghosts are increasingly manifesting themselves in the present.
Denis ZezIukin
As a child, I had a particular affection for railroads. I dream that I will become a train operator when I grow up. My family lived in a small town far north of Western Siberia. Our area had no trains, and I wanted the railway to appear one day. Once, one of the adults told me about the abandoned rail tracks and wooden barracks found in the forest outside the city limits. I learned the history of their origin much later. From 1947 to 1953, one of Stalin's large-scale Construction Projects took place in the post-war USSR. Prisoners of the Gulag and civilians were building the railway track of Chum-Salekhard-Igarka in difficult northern conditions. The road from river Ob to Yenisei was supposed to stretch along the latitude of the Arctic Circle for 1,480 kilometres and connect the mainland with the construction site of a new seaport. In the sixth year of construction, when almost half of the track was already functioning, Stalin died. Soon after the death of its main ideologist, the track itself fell asleep forever. The project was recognized as inexpedient and mothballed.
I think about unfulfilled dreams and unresolved traumas of the Soviet past. Power in the USSR rested on the myth of a bright future; the road extended through many people's fate and turned into a disaster. More than half a century later, the repressive policy of the state and terror against its citizens have not received a proper legal assessment. Society has not fully assimilated the dark lessons of history, and their ghosts are increasingly manifesting themselves in the present.
BLURRING THE LINES
FOSTERING TALENT AND NETWORKING IN VISUAL CULTURE
Program Leader
Partners
BLURRING THE LINES
FOSTERING TALENT AND NETWORKING IN VISUAL CULTURE
Program Leader
Partners
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